It's a great day here in Orem, Utah! Have you ever dreaded the events of a Saturday??? Saturdays can be a lot more difficult to experience than any other day of the week in the Leavitt household. Saturday is the day that we have 3 different baseball league games to participate in. This past Saturday was sunny and hot with 96 degree temperatures. The first game was at 9 am, but this week was team picture week and so it required arriving 30 minutes early so each 5 & 6 yr old could smile for the camera. After helping to coach Haily's T-ball game ("Run! Run! No, no, second base is this way! Good job!"). Then we were off to help out with Jessica's fast pitch softball practice. This was followed with an afternoon team picture and coach pitch game for Adam's 7-year-old league. This game is the hardest of all because I am the "coach" that gets to "pitch." Do any of you know how hard it is to hit the bats of 7-year-olds in order to build their confidence??? It is extremely difficult to get each player a hit when they swing so different each time. We arrived back home at 2:30 in the afternoon and I was just beat. The sun has a way of just sucking the energy out of you. I know there are many of you out there who did the same thing on Saturday or who did this in the past. I wouldn't trade these memories for anything and I know you feel the same way, afterall, these kids sure are adorable.
The shocker for me this weekend was to watch the news on TV. This is something that I rarely get to do in the summertime. I was overwhelmed by the tragedy that has hit the Houston, Texas area. What is it like to get 26 inches of rain??? We talked about Sucker Lots a few weeks back, but the news footage looked more like it was necessary to identify Sucker Neighborhoods.
June 4, 2001 - AUSTIN, TX -- Farmers Insurance Group must pay more than $32 million to a Dripping Springs family because the insurer mishandled the homeowners' claim for a water leak that caused sickening black mold damage.
The landmark June 1 Travis County District Court jury ruling concluded that a Farmers subsidiary, Farmers Insurance Exchange, committed fraud when it failed to cover repairs for a water leak before the leak spawned the toxic mold stachybotrys.
Mold spread throughout Melinda Ballard's and Ron Allison's 22-room mansion and, the couple say, caused severe health problems, including neurological damage that forced Allison to leave his career as an investment banker.
The couple originally sought $100 million.
"I hope all of you understand just how important this verdict is to all of us. I believe the heroes here are the jury members and I know you will agree," said Ballard.
Attorneys for Farmers agreed the home was contaminated, but said the family was due only $1.8 million to cover the cost of getting rid of the mold. Farmers argued the couple exacerbated to the problem by refusing to make repairs when the insurance benefit checks arrived.
Farmers likely will appeal the case if Judge John Dietz does not significantly reduce the award when he enters the judgment.
The jury agreed 11-1 to award the family $6.2 million in actual damages to decontaminate, demolish and rebuild the property. Jurors also awarded $12 million in punitive damages, $5 million for mental anguish and $8.9 million in lawyers' fees.
Toxic mold contamination, often caused by excessive moisture, has spawned a growing number of complains and lawsuits from Delaware to California. A growing number of claims target home builders. Poor construction and bad material choices can create an ideal breeding ground for mold.
Erin Brockovich says mold in her newly built Agoura Hills, CA home has cost her her health and most of the after-tax $2 million bonus she received for her role in the landmark chromium-6 water contamination legal suit against Pacific Gas & Electric.
"I'm not here today because I'm looking for a new cause. I wasn't looking for mold -- mold found me," Brockovich testified before California's Senate Committee on Health and Human Services earlier this year.
The committee was conducting hearings on new legislation, SB 732, the "Toxic Mold Protection Act" which, if passed into law, would set standards for unhealthful levels of mold and require the California Department of Health Services to oversee remedies for toxic mold infestations. At least two other similar bills are pending in California's Legislature.
The Ballard-Allison victory may not be a precedent-setting legal landmark, but it does offer symbolic importance for others who have shared similar headaches addressing fungus problems in their home.
Consumer grassroots activists lament, however, that such a legal battle isn't always possible without the financial capabilities of Ballard and Allison.
"Her case will certainly help. Most other families will not come out of their situation like she has. I wonder how many years it will go through appeals," asked Nancy Seats, the Liberty City, MO founder of Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings.
The 66-year-old Seats has been grappling with builders and government officials over structural flaws since not long after 1991 when she moved into her newly-built home and discovered the problems.
Written by Broderick Perkins
http://www.realtytimes.com/rtnews/printrtpages/20010605_mold1.htm
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Monday, June 04, 2001 - Inman News Features - http://www.inman.com/InmanStories.asp?ID=24750&CatType=R
Real estate referral programs may affect the independence of professional home inspectors in Canada, according to the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors.
The association has given its members written notice that participation in referral programs violates the group’s code of conduct. This notice was in response to requests that the association’s discipline and professional practices committee clarify its position on Home-Link Services Canada, a real estate referral service business.
Home-Link provides home sellers and home buyers with referrals for products and services related to real estate transactions. Service providers typically must pay an annual access fee in order to be referred and pay Home-Link a transaction fee for each inspection performed. Home inspectors who don’t pay such fees aren’t referred to consumers through Home-Link, according to the inspectors’ association.
Home buyers rely on home inspectors to provide an unbiased report of the physical condition of the home they are about to purchase. The Ontario association’s code of conduct states that members may not "solicit, receive or give referral fees." The group has instructed its members "not to enter into the contractual agreement because of the objectionable endorsement and referral fees involved."
The association has warned its members that participation in these programs will result in disciplinary action, which may include expulsion from the group.
About a year ago, 3D Inspections became the provider to the National Pest Management Association to develop the NPMA and State Pest Association forms in a computerized format. Prior to that time, the NPMA offered only carbon copy forms, but they allowed others to develop the NPMA forms in computerized format for their own businesses. The carbon copy forms just do not fit well in this electronic age. They are neither conducive to e-mailing or fax machines. Lenders have required original copies and it was always a laborious pain in the rear to fill these forms out longhand.
The thought of computerizing these forms made everybody's eyes light up. With a system like 3D, the benefits were incredible. All of the Inspector, Client, and report information could be automatically merged from the 3D Office Management System software into the NPMA reports. Then all of the same 60 comments that are used in Pest Reports could be automated and with a stroke of the check-off box, you could quickly produce a sharp report that was meant for electronic transfer..... That was the dream, but in this case --"Reality Bites!"
Consider this review a shredding of the beautiful dream. The NPMA muddled up all of the dream with restrictive nightmares. Let me explain...... The NPMA has made it so that you buy a certain number of licensed uses of the form. This means that when you use up your 50 form uses, that you have to call the NPMA and order more. This would be okay except that in restricting the amount of uses the form and its contents are also restricted from any modification.
The NPMA form allows you to add your business name, address, phone number, license # and inspector name, but everything else is locked. This means that you still must type in the inspection address, inspection city, inspection state, inspection zip, inspection time, etc., etc., etc. Every reportable condition that you would normally add to your check off boxes are not there and they cannot be added. This means that you manually type in each and every comment...... What a pain! All of this in the name of restrictive use licenses.
So why doesn't the NPMA just sell users an unlimited use version and allow the user to modify the reports comments at will? The answer seems to be both GREED and PARANOIA. They like the idea of continued licensed use revenues. They seem to care very little about customer use. The paranoia is about the NPMA not wanting the unrestricted use versions to get out and kill their cash cow. I also believe that it is due to the NPMA's ignorance to the possibilities of the 3D program.
Let's defend 3D's side of this ugly situation for a moment. They were asked to design the form, which they did. They were asked to make the forms restricted use, which they did. They were asked to develop a LITE version of 3D so that the Pest Control Operators would not have to purchase the full version of 3D to produce a pest report, which 3D gladly created. 3D was not allowed to let the user get into the forms and modify them, which most users cannot do anyway.
3D believes that their Standard Paragraphs feature satisfies the comment library challenge. This feature of 3D comes from an early DOS version where you would select comments from a drop down library instead of checking off boxes. As 3D improved their software, the old dinosaur Inspectors could not give up the Standard Paragraph feature and it has remained, yet very few newer users use the feature. 3D believes that this Standard Library can be modified to hold the Pest Inspection reportable comments that are needed. With just a couple of clicks you can get the comment added that you need..... Dream on!!!
Brent Foster does as many, if not more, Pest Inspections than anybody in AII. He uses one of the most expensive handheld computers and he is set up for performing hundreds of inspections a year. I talked him into using the 3D NPMA Washington form sets and he thought it was going to be his solution. Instead, he reported to me that it has been the biggest pain in his current inspection process. Brent complained that he has to come back home and struggle to key in the information for 3 Pest Inspections a day, plus his normal 3 Inspection Reports a day.
Brent purchased the full Office Management System from 3D as well as another $75 to the NPMA for his first form license. Everyday he returns home and all of the Inspection information easily merges into his home inspection reports and then he has to re-key the information again into his 3D NPMA Pest Inspection Reports. This is very redundant and, for those of you that know Brent, you are aware that he does not put up with this nonsense. So Brent called 3D and was frustrated by their lack of ability to help his plight. He then called the NPMA and they said that they don't have anything to do with it. Brent was left to figure out which neck he wanted to wring the most. Then came his call to your's truly.
I sympathized with Brent's plight and shared with him the fact that IF the NPMA forms were not restricted use forms then they could be easily modified. I also shared with him that IF he wanted to provide 3D with his list of comments to add that they could get them approved and added. Those of you that know Brent know how well that went over. Next came Brent's bribe to anyone who could recreate the NPMA forms without the restricted license feature. This would allow him to use the forms the way they should have been intended.
I resisted Brent's first bribe and pointed out the Standard Paragraph option to which he shared with me a few words about the Standard Paragraphs that I don't hear very often. His complaint was that he wiped out the entire Standard Paragraph library and only put in comments about Pest Inspections. He said that using it was a pain if he wanted to select more than 1 comment. With each selection, the Standard Paragraphs section would close and he would have to reopen it. As a side note, the Standard Paragraph feature does not work on the Pocket PC handheld platform so it makes the NPMA forms virtually useless if you are a Pocket PC user.
Brent is not trying to shortchange the NPMA because he will buy their individual use licenses. Brent will still be purchasing his State of Washington use licenses. He is not trying to avoid paying anybody. Instead, he just wants to be able to take advantage of all of the 3D Inspection System features. This will allow him to be more productive and produce more complete reports in less time. After seeing that Brent had pursued solutions to this issue long enough and that he had endured enough pain, I helped him with a solution.
I don't know how 3D will react to the harsh words that I have shared, but I hope that they will rework their restricted use forms and allow honest Inspectors the full benefits they have purchased by selecting 3D as their software of choice. Rumor has it that there was a created-from-scratch set of unrestricted Washington State pest report forms making it onto the hard drive of a relieved Washington Inspector as you read this. Don't press me for details, but if you flash back to the Godfather movie you will find his solution. He made me an offer that I...................
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Shelly took some time earlier this week to key in her thoughts on her sickness and recovery conditions......
Hello, Wonderful Friends!
Thought I'd take a few moments and let you know how I am doing....straight from the horse's mouth!
Just want you to know that I remain positive and upbeat. Michael says I put on a good front, but truthfully I don't feel sad or angry at all. I know that we will eventually find the answers to cure this challenge. I have been greatly uplifted by all of the responses by people that care. You have no idea that people even give two seconds of though to you until something happens to you and everyone reaches out and sends their love and concern. It is an amazingly humble experience to have so many reach out. I feel completely unworthy of all the prayers and concern...but am so glad people don't care I am unworthy and still send them!!
I know that it is frustrating to live far away from me and not be able to physically do anything for me....but please believe me that your words help me soooo much. Michael brings them into me while I'm laying in bed and it comforts me and warms my heart to know that people all over are thinking about me and praying for me. I feel so blessed to know such wonderful people.
We have hired a nanny but she can't start until the 21st. One of my sisters (I have 4 sisters and a brother and they have all been wonderful during this challenge) has been here this week and next week we will have to rely on friends and neighbors to help out. The pain comes and goes....it goes right after I take my medicine and comes about 2 hours later! But I am tough and it is not that bad.
The sarcoidosis that I have has attacked my lymph nodes all over my neck, chest, next to my aorta and down my lung area. The masses (about 50 or so) are so inflamed that they cause pain in my chest area. I am still weak, shaky and tire easily. The reason for the hospital stay was because they thought the sarcoidosis might be affecting my heart and/or valves, etc., but they found no damage there. When I asked the "pain management team" (it took a whole team to manage my pain!) why I could take such strong drugs (morphine) and not be hallucinating and flying like I normally do with lesser potent drugs, they said it was because where my pain is located is the most excruciating pain one can have and it is only able to reduce the pain and not take it completely away. That made me feel better because I was beginning to wonder if I wasn't as tough as I used to be.
The prednisone (a steroid) has made my face unrecognizable (I look my Martin Short in "Pure Luck" when he gets stung my a bee or Tim Allen in "The Santa Clause" when he wakes up and sees he has gained a ton of weight.). It is strange to look in the mirror and not recognize my own face. I am slowly being taken off the prednisone 10 mg. at a time and should be completely off it on the 21st of June. The 8 weeks of 60 mg. only shrunk my masses slightly--it was hoped that the treatment would completely shrink them and I would go into remission. That is how typical patients respond...but not being your typical person, I must be unique! I am one of the 5% who doesn't respond to prednisone treatment. So we are searching the internet and calling doctors to see if anyone has other answers. (Thank you to all of you have sent website and doctor info...it has been very helpful!) So far, haven't found anyone who does anything besides treat the symptoms or use prednisone as a last resort. But I feel confident that something will come up and we will conquer this thing.
Well, this is probably way more information than you wanted. I tend to be very verbose and rattle on and on. Thank you again for all of your kindness. I wish I could have the strength to write to you each individually to express my thanks. Please know that I am grateful to you.
With love for all my internet friends and friends I've met,
Shelly Leavitt
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